One of the most important archaeological discoveries that has helped historians get a better understanding of the quality of life during the era otherwise know as the ‘Greek Dark Ages’ is being displayed at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
The find is a well- preserved piece of fabric from circa 1100-750 BC, discovered at the archaeological site of Lefkandi in Evia (Euboea island) and belonged to a high-ranking citizen of ancient Lefkandi, the settlement where the first recorded war in Greek history was fought. Evia is considered by historians as the prefecture that provides the link for the evolution of the Mycenaean civilisation into Classical Greece.
The fabric, which was uncovered in 1980 during an excavation that brought two shaft graves to the surface is being exhibited with other artifacts from the original site.
Found in a grave alongside the remains of a cremated man and a woman buried alongside a wall, it was buried under a large structure called a hērōön (hero’s grave). A bit further four horses had been sacrificed with the couple and the metallic parts of the reins were still in their mouths.
The man’s ashes were wrapped in a fringed linen cloth and stored in a bronze amphora from Cyprus engraved with a hunting scene and placed within an even larger bronze bowl while the female’s body wore a ring, a bronze brassiere and had an iron knife with an ivory handle by her shoulder. The woman was also wearing a rare Babylonian gorget that archaeologists estimate was a thousand years old at the time of the burial.
The item of clothing will be on display until May.